5 More Thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays Offseason - Thoughts on Happ/Saunders Trade, Smoak Signing, Budgets/Sanchez & Bullpen

I'm about a day and a half late on this latest entry on my series of thoughts on the Blue Jays offseason, but I couldn't help it,  Men's League hockey took priority one night.  I played great....Dino Ciccarelli'd it up! and then fell asleep watching a movie the next night, but that's ok I'm a Dad and It's pretty much a given that Dad's will fall asleep during any movie.

Anyway...enough about me potting garbage goals and watching the inside of my eye lids. 5 more thoughts on the Blue Jays offseason!

1.  After being non tender by the Blue Jays on Tuesday night...Justin Smoak turned around and signed a 1 year 1 million dollar contract with your Toronto Blue Jays!  I like the  upside of this deal given the power potential, him playing half his games in a homer dome then a good number of road games in hitter friendly AL East parks, it's pennies financially, and they still retain a year of control if everything works out. Sure the worst case scenario is that he's horrible, but it's not like 1st baseman are really that hard to find compared to a 2nd baseman who can hit anyways!



2. Late Wednesday afternoon word got out that the Toronto Blue Jays traded current member of the starting rotation  JA Happ to the Seattle Marniners for Good Old Canadian Boy from Victoria BC Michael Saunders. First off I like this Trade!  JA Happ is a FA at the end of the 2015 and baring him coming out and dominating for 3 months... right now is the time to deal him if you want to get maximum value.  In Saunders you get a guy to play LF Well, Got some Wheels and moving to the Roger's Centre "Should" help his bat (which looked to be taking a turn for the better last year).  Yes, I would rather have Melky then Saunders (Lots of power in the line-up currently and they need more contact hitters) but this deal allows the team to do so much more to the overall line-up than signing Melky would have.  Anyways.....What I took most from this deal is that Alex Anthopoulos is doing exactly what he said he was going to do this offseason.  At the end of the year AA said that he was not going to let the market dictate what Jays plans are for the offseason.  Waiting around to see how thing splayed out was not an acceptable strategy, and this deal to me is a perfect example of this.  I think the Jays did want Melky back, but even though they said that they didn't have a time frame on getting a deal done with Melky, this trade for a Left Fielder with potential and control right before the winter meetings says otherwise.  AA now has no Left Field issue to deal with, He's potentially cleaned up some of the bad eggs around the clubhouse and how will spend the Winter Meetings fixing his bullpen.  It's Alex's World this offseason and we are all just living in it!



3. The past few days have seen a number of the regular Blue Jays reporters are starting to stress that the Jays have XXX amount of Money left to spend this offseaosn based on the previous year's player salary budget.  That's all well and fine, but what makes me question all of this with a Rockian Eyebrow is if this is the case, why does Paul Beeston go out of his way to say that Payroll is going up this year?  I get that if it even goers up by 1 million year over year it's technically going up, but to me why would you put yourself in a position if it's minimal increase.  I don't get the need to build false hope and then need to justify your statement through semantics.



4.  Good Old Boy John Gibbons was on the Jeff Blair Show on Thursday and the conversation at one point turned to the the topic of putting Aaron Sanchez into the starting rotation for 2015.  Gibby didn't hold anything back and pretty much said that 99% we are going to see Aaron Sanchez as a starter for the Blue Jays in 2015.  I'm not convinced this is the case. I'm not saying he can't go there and pitch well, but I still think the Jays make a play for another starter and may end up putting Sanchez into the Closer role.  Gibby really liked him there and he has the stuff to dominate in that role for a long time!



5.  So now it looks like the focus for the Blue Jays will shift to the helping upgrade the bullpen, which in all reality how this turns could determine how next season will play out.  We've seen over the last few years that a truly dominant bullpen can help push a team towards playoff glory and how a terrible bullpen will turn a good team into a mediocre one. I'm still not convinced the Jays see the value in giving crazy $ to the two big FA bullpen arms that are out there in David Robertson and Andrew Miller, but to say I would be surprised if they did sign either one would mean I didn't learn anything from the offseason so far.  Still I believe we see the Jays bring in 2 or 3 relievers in the next few weeks.  I could see them looking seriously at Luke Gregerson, Sergio Romo, Jason Grilli and maybe even taking a flyer on Jason Motte.



Next week we have the Winter meetings!  One of the most exciting times of the year in the baseball world!  I don't expect the Jays to do anything overly significant next week, but i'm sure there will be rumors aplenty that will keep those in Jays nation talking for some time!

5 Thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays Dec 1st - Week in Review - Offseason Edition

The week in Jays Nation started out quiet and left with a "HOLY SHAT...we got Josh Donaldson"

5 thoughts on the week that was..... here you go!

1.  The Blue Jays released their 2015 promotional schedule.  Lots and Lots of great stuff to help elongate line-ups on Sunday mornings all through the summer.

Highlight 1.  The Bell, Barfield & Moseby bobblehead.   Ummm yeah that's amazing.  Who wouldn't want that?  Probably anyone born after 1985 maybe?

Highlight 2.  On April 19th, there is a Jose Bautista Bobblehead night, but in addition to this...... After the game any Amateur baseball team can have their picture taken on field.  Amazing.... and I have already sent an email to my softball team.

To see a complete list of the promotions for 2015...See the link below.

http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/schedule/promotions.jsp?c_id=tor


2. A report came out  from Buster Olney saying that Melky Cabrera would rather sign with a team other than the Jays due to the team still playing on artificial turf!  Cue the Shat Storm....Soon after the rumor came out Melky's Agent was on the Fan 590 saying  Melky never said that, Soon after that Melky sent out a Tweet refuting the statement and then after that Jose Bautista ripped into the original tweet giving writers shit for saying info publicly that could have an effect on a free agents signing.  Pretty crazy chain of events...Whatever really....I would probably rather play on grass too, but let's be serious Melky is going to sign with whatever team gives him the best deal regardless of the surface he's playing on.



3.  Friday Night we had the latest MLB blockbuster that saw the Blue Jays trade Brett Lawrie, Sean Nolin, Kendall Graveman and Franklin Barreto to the Oakland Athletics for All-Star Josh Donaldson.  I've said much to this trade already, but let's be real... If you don't like this trade for baseball reasons than you suck!  Sure some of the Guys could turn out to be stars and help the Athletics win multiple pennants, but the reality is that they won't.  The road to the MLB is littered with players who were can't miss prospects and if you can get an MVP candidate for some lower end prospects you do it.



4.  Late Sunday night Ken Rosenthal tweeted out that the Blue Jays were interested in Alberto Callaspo as a buy low option for 2nd base. I can't say really see it as that much more of an upgrade over Macier Izturis.  I guess the possibility of having an offensive resurgence hitting at the Dome is possible, but that being said I really don't know what his defense is like, so i'm not sure I see the reasoning with signing Callaspo.  What do I know...I'm not be paid to make make these decisions.



5. Word out from Alex Anthopolous himself on Sunday was that the Jays are  out on any of the high end Bullpen talent that is available in Free Agency.  From my POV, this only makes sense.  Long term deals the like of Andrew Miller and David Robertson are going to get rarely have staying power for bullpen guys.  I'm not sure why that is, but my assumption is that after a guy has a breakout year in the pen it's only a matter of time before the league is able to watch enough film and figure them out.  If that's the case then it's really not that difficult to figure it out since I figured it out.



That being said I do believe the Jays were in on Andrew Miller and were trying to get it done early in the hope of getting to sign quick and get as much value as possible, but as the off-season went on more and more teams got into the race and killed any value that the Jays possibly saw in him.

5 Thoughts on the Blue Jays Trade of Brett Lawrie (+) for Josh Donaldson

So after a very bland and boring week in Blue Jays land on Friday Night at around 10:30pm it was leaked that the Blue Jays have traded Canadian 3rd baseman Brett Lawrie, Starting pitcher Kendall Graveman,  Starting pitcher Sean Nolin, and International SS Franklin Barreto to the Oakland Athletics for All-Star 3rd baseman Josh F@cking Donaldson.



Needless to say Blue Jays nation went god damn bananas!

Here are my 5 initial thoughts on the trade!

1.I'm still a little bit shocked that Brett Lawrie was traded to be quite honest!  When he joined the team after being dealt for Shaun Marcum, it seemed inevitable that he would be a staple in the Blue Jays organization.  He seemed to have all the physical tools that one would need to make it the Big Leads + he was Canadian.  The Jays had never had a full fledge Canadian Star on the team and this seemed like their best shot to have one.  Those elements lead me to believe we would see Lawrie around for a while.  Well since making his MLB debut he's been injury prone and very inconsistent, couple that with the fact that the Jays now have another potential Canadian Star and one Proven Canadian star on their roster, the time just seems right to capitalize on the value that Lawrie has.



2. Oh the three prospects that went to the Athletics most Jays fans probably only saw limited innings pitched by Graveman and Nolin at best.  Most of the word on the Interwebs is that Barreto could be the key of the deal and he's still only 18.  For me I like what I saw out of Graveman this year and was a little disappointed his name was out 1st of all the prospects going the other way.  I'm a big fan of having sinker ball pitchers in the Dome and he definitely was that.  Oh well!  Prospects will break your heart!



3. Again much like the Martin FA signing this deal doesn't fix an immediate need that the Jays had.  We still don't have a Left Fielder, A working Bullpen and an acceptable option at 2nd base.  That being said, both deals have made us better at each position, they haven't really handcuffed the team financially and they make the team more appealing to other possible FA targets.  The whole concept of AA having an off-season plan and not deviating from it is getting extremely difficult to ignore!



4.  I'm not going to pretend that I heard this exactly word for word, however today on PTS Shi Davidi said something along the lines that John Gibbons want to eliminate the immaturity in the club house.  Well I guess after the way the off-season has a gone already it's fair to assume who those player were who Gibbons thoughts were "immature".





5. JOSH DONALDSON!  WOW!  Still can't believe that this trade was out there to make.  In Donaldson we pretty much get the guy who we all wanted Brett Lawrie to be!   Being able to put a talent like him into the middle of our line-up instantly makes the Blue Jays better.   I'm not exactly sure how his game will translate into the AL East, but you would think a great hitter going to one of the best hitters ball parks in the league it should be a good thing.  We will have to see how he get's accustomed to playing on the turf, most guys need some time to get used to the unique playing conditions that the turf provide.



Bonus Thought!  I can't believe the Red Sox weren't in on a deal like this....They have the prospects to make it happen and I would think they would rather give up a few pieces rather than give Pablo Sandoval almost 100M over 5 years!

Quick 5 Thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays - Off-Season Edition - The more fun season!

Fairly boring weekend out there in Blue Jays land, but i'm not complaining after such a fun week leading into the weekend.  Just a quick hit today!

1.  Looks like the Blue Jays are out on Pablo Sandoval seeing as they haven't provided an offer to the player and all reports are saying that it's down to the Red Sox, Padres and Giants.  I would have liked to see the Panda with the Blue Jays, but ideally I would like to see the Blue Jays go after a 2nd basemen in Trade rather than sign a 3rd baseman and send Lawrie over to 2nd.  If the Jays are going to have Reyes playing SS for the next little while having Lawrie beside him drastically helps make the left side of the infield.  The Jays wouldn't be going after Chase Headley now would they?



2.  So we are less than a week into the Russell Martin era in Toronto and I've already heard more about framing then when I finished my basement.  Do I understand 100% exactly that all entails a good 'Framer" of the baseball?  No, but that's ok!  After listening to people talk about it, it sounds kinda boring.  All I do know is that if it's going to help the Jays win then I'm in.  Pitch Framing for everyone!



3. Later on in the week we heard that the Jays were feeling out what the market is for Torii Hunter. Seems that there are a lot of teams in on him.  My suggestion...Let them have him.  Only reason for me to think that the Jays want him would be for this Clubhouse Presence, cause he aint getting any better.



4.  Mike Wilner today went out to say that the Jays had  "One of the most dysfunctional clubhouses" around via some of his sources.  Well I guess we can tell who the Jays thought was the problem.... I wonder if it's just a coincidence that Adam Lind and Anthony Gose have been traded and the team won't be bringing back Colby Rasmus and Casey Janssen?



http://pmd.fan590.com/podcasts/blue_jays_this_week/bjtw_20141123_143524--BlueJaysTalkThis-Week---November-23---Sunday-.mp3


5. Below is a link to a great overview of the timeline up to the Russell Martin signing via Bob Eilliott.  He wrote something similar a few years back that went over the timeline leading up to the Marlins trade.  Give it a look, you'll even get the chance to find out what AA had for dinner one night!

http://m.torontosun.com/2014/11/23/in-depth-look-at-how-blue-jays-landed-russell-martin







Worst Clubhouse - Can it be changed?

5 Thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays Offseason - AA Interview on PTS

So today we had the Introducery (Yep!  Made that word up) press conference of the newest member of the Toronto Blue Jays...Russell Martin.  Nothing out of the ordinary except for a whole lot of stuff En Francais!

Anyways I figured instead of trying to sort through all the things were said over the course of numerous media interview all day I would focus on an interview that Alex Anthopolous gave with Prime Time Sports on the Fan 590 in Toronto. i'm choosing to give 5 thoughts on this interview as it covers a great deal of different topics.  Give it a listen....It's good

http://www.sportsnet.ca/590/prime-time-sports/blue-jays-gm-alex-anthopoulos-on-prime-time-sports/

1.  AA mentions early on in the Interview that in their office that they track current Free Agents as well as the next year's Free Agents, which should actually put some additional perspective into why the Martin deal was made even with a capable starting catcher already on the team.  Navarro is a free agent next year and if the Jays didn't think that anyone who would be available next year would match up to Russell Martin, you might as well get the best available guy when you can.



2.  AA  goes onto mentioning that the Team has gone to great lengths to investigate the so called " high taxes" issue that may be one of the reasons for players not wanting to sign in Toronto.  Well long story short....because half of games are played in the US for some reason this actually works as a benefit to exempting players from some taxes and actually makes them fall in the middle of the pack for income tax deductions among major league teams!  Now.....AA said that they've paid companies to figure this all out and that's awesome, but NOW all they should be doing is sending this information to each and every agent that has a Major League Ball player on their roster.



3. During a part of the interview the topic switched to how this World Series showed the value of the bullpen, which was obvious, however one thing I found interesting was that AA  went on about how due to the weather change in the playoff season it was important to ensure that you have contact hitters on your team! Agreed....100%, but shouldn't automatically make you think that AA would really want to get Melky signed?  He was arguably their best contact hitter all last year and I don't know of that many other great contact hitters that are available on the market.........................Whatever we already know Aoki looks good in blue and white.



4.  Anthopolous talked about the trade market and gave the sense that it was still in the exploratory phase. Other Gm's asking more than the Jays are willing to give, since the Jays were always trying to get a better player nothing was going to happen right away. Yeah deep insight I know!  Anyways....Said he know which guys are available but unfortunately the deals all seemed to have to include a kicker that the Jays are not willing to give up, but they are still interested in negotiating.  Something tells me the Winter meetings are going to be a fun one.  Hopefully Sportsnet takes notice and sends down a few people to cover everything properly!



5. Here something to ponder.  AA mentions that before the interview started he has to cut a phone call short!  He said that he was on the phone with a player agent who was trying to see if there was an interest in his client!  Who was this Agent's player?  I am going to say that it was Jason Grilli's agent.  I listened to him give an interview on TSN radio last night and he was all but asking for a contract from the Jays!



Alright...Good talk!  Go Jays

5 Thoughts on the Blue Jays Offseason - Day After the Russell Martin Signing - Let Down Edition

Yeah, I'm not try to say I've got anything as interesting to say about the Blue Jays after the Russell Martin Signing yesterday, but I still got thoughts!

1.  Blue Jays signed Brock Jacoby as their hitting Coach! Brock was with Cincinnati for a whole bunch of year and comes with the same philosophy that all new age hitting coach's seem to have....  "Try to go up the middle, take what they give you and change your approach at 2 strikes".  Just hoping this guy sticks around for a while for consistency sake.  I'm still not convinced that it wouldn't be more important to have your best hitting coaches at the lower levels of your minor league systems! Seems to make sense...teach them young to have a have good tendencies and approaches....No....Whatever.




2. Saw somewhere that the Jays were looking ad Emilio Bonifacio.  Interesting I guess.  Weird that the Jays would want to bring in a guy who they basically gave away for nothing only a few years ago. I don't blame Emilio for being as bad defensively as he was when he was with the Jays, I blame the Jays.   How they don't have a better way to have new players become accustom to playing artificial turf is beyond me.   Spend time in TO working on fielding, have turf somewhere at your spring training facility, something!



3.  Would I like to see the Jays have Andrew Miller in their Bullpen in 2015?  Yes.  Would I give him 4 years at 8mil a year?  No....No No No.... I'm not going to pretend that I know how to put a Major League bullpen together, but I will pretend that I know that Bullpen Dominance is something that comes and goes year to year.  Look at the Jays Pen in 2013 vs 2014.  Not that different, but very different results.  I would rather see the Jays go with the some Younger guys in the system or maybe a few guys from the NL to build their pen with. Lack of knowledge of failed starters seem to be a measure of success for Bullpens.



4.  Saw the tweet in the link below from Peter Gammons that is a quote from AA about the Martin Signings. Seems very odd for an AA comment.  I'm surprised that it's so open about the plan for the rest of the off-season. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN ALEX!   

https://twitter.com/pgammo/status/534451050292740096



5. For the longest time I was not a Bob McCowan fan, but over time that's changed! PTS is the highlight of the Drive home.  One thing I've learned over time living in Toronto and listening to the Fan is that Bob is very well connected within the Blue Jays organization.  He doesn't go out on the limb and mention stuff very often unless he's pretty sure of himself!  That being said his tweet last night saying that Jays budget would not be the issue in signing John Lester is very interesting.  Does it mean that the Jays will sign Lester probably not, but it does say to me anyway that the Jays are for real this off-season!

https://twitter.com/FadooBobcat/status/534896237624193024

5 thoughts on the Blue Jays signing Russell Martin

Funny! I left the house today on my way to work thinking it was going to be a quiet week ahead in Blue Jays land!  Yeah......

5 thoughts on the Russell Martin signing



1.  Honestly.  Like most out there I didn't see this coming.  I was pretty sure the Jays were simply doing their normal asking about everyone and simply going by the wayside when it came down to crunch time.  Well I am happy to say I was wrong.  It's fair to say that I'm jacked about the Blue Jays signing Russell Martin



2. I'm not worried about the term or the $$ that the Jays are giving to Martin!  The position has been pretty much a black hole for God knows how long now, and it's going to be great to have some stability in such a crucial position and possibly a great mentor for a guy like Max Pentecost once he starts getting close to being Major League ready!  



3. I wonder if Russell Martin will be in any of the advertising for the two Exhibition games that are going to be played in Montreal?  #thingsthatmakeyousaymmmmmm



4.  I can't remember the last time we had a full time starter that was referred to as a good defensive catcher! Yeah the two Molina Bros were great, but they were hardly everyday players.  I'm really looking forward to see how a catcher of Martin's caliber can help alter the course of the game for the betterment of the Jays!



5.  So as it stands as of right now we have 3 catchers on the roster.  Martin, Navarro & Thole!  I can't for the life of me think that they will leave spring training with all 3 on the 25 man roster.  So basically there seems to be three options. 1.  Trade Navarro!  What you get?  I don't know, but I would imagine on his own you get maybe a bullpen arm. Packaged with someone else...maybe you something better that may allow you to fill a hole adequately.  2.  Release Thole and hope RA can work with Navarro.....Ha. yeah that ain't happening... 3. Trade Josh Thole and RA Dickey. This would give the Jays some extra $$, give the Jays some flexibility on their bench as your backup C could also DH from time to time, gets ride of a terrible hitter, leaves room in the rotation for a young arm, and trading RA would actually bring you back a tangible asset.  I may have gone too far there to think that the Jays will trade a Guy with 14 wins and 215 inning pitched in order to not have 3 catchers, but hey that's why these are my thoughts...can't say there all good ones!



Hey the Jays also signed a Hitting Coach!

Blue Jays Thoughts - Blah Blah Blah

Is there any better time of year for Baseball talk then the off-season?   The answer is no..  More thoughts on the Blue Jays

1. I get that he had a terrible year, but if the Jays miss out on some of the high end FA why not look at Kendrys Morales?  Guy has hit over the course of his career (I realize he didn't last year), he could benefit alot from a hitters ballpark, is a switch hitter, and he would be cheap.   Just a thought.



2. Word on the internet machine is that Russell Martin is the Jays main priority this off-season.  Let's say everything works out and they get him. Does that mean that RA Dickey is going to be traded?  Hear me out here?  If they pick up Martin that would make 3 catchers on the 25 man roster.  You ain't going to move Navarro and you can't justify holding a bench spot for Thole so in the effort of making a long thought process short if the Jays move Dickey and Thole it give them versatility on the bench, in the line-up and also some financial flexibility as they could probably move a SP anyways.



3.  Jays traded Anthony Gose! Don't think I ever remember seeing a guy look worse striking out than Anthony Gose.



4. So the Roger's Centre is getting new Astro Turf this year, which is nice! I still don't know what this means for the players?  I would assume it would help reduce injuries, slow down the ball through the infield and the possibly have some seam issues.



5.  Rumor from Bob Elliott is that the Jays offered Mekly 39M/3 Years.  I'm embarrassed for the Jays is this is true.  I get the art of negotiation, and there's a good chance the Melky camp is just pushing this info out to get some leverage, but what Melky brings to the team is worth more than 13M a year.  If the Jays don't end up with Melky, I can't wait to see what their plans are then especially given they got ride of Lind to give them more Financial Flexibility.

5 thoughts on the Blue Jays Devon Travis/Anthony Gose Trade

So yesterday the Blue Jays and the Tigers made a trade. Devon Travis for Anthony Gose.  Young Outfielder for Young Infielder.  Here are 5 thoughts on the trade!

1. Jays end up with the Top Prospect from the Tigers organization and he immediately ranks 9th on the Jays prospect list.  Two ways too look at this....  The Jays system is deeper than most of us probably think and The Tigers have really gone all in over the past few years and depleted their system to utter ruins.



2.  Dalton Pompey will be in CF for the Jays in April!  He has much more upside than a guy like Pillar and if AA and Beeston expect the Jays to be contention they are going to need some decent contribution out of the CF position and Pompey's potential could provide more than Pillar's.



3. I'm not familiar at all with Devon Travis, I have never seen him play or even heard of him prior to yesterday, but what has me excited about him (after reading a bit about him today) is that he seems to be a guy who get's by on hard work and could be refereed to as a "Grinder", things the Jays haven't really been known for developing.

4.  I think the Jays lost most of their hope for Gose last year and it primarily came from his reluctance to use his time in Buffalo to help himself get better. Guy never hit better than .250 in AAA and had an on base of just over .300.  For a guy who needs to rely on his legs to make him a star he needed to work as much as possible on getting on base.



5. I'm going to assume that Travis starts in Buffalo in April.  This makes me Happy as i'll get to see him play on my annual trip to a Bisons Game!  If you live in Southern Ontario and haven't been to Buffalo for a Bisons you are doing yourself a disservice.



*** Bonus Thought!  I am so glad I won't have to look at the horrible full of holes swing that Anthony brought to the plate!

More thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays Off Season!

Hey Look....  Two posts in two days!

5 Thoughts on the Blue Jays.....Here you go!

1.  Why haven't I heard anything about the Blue Jays signing Nelson Cruz?  He's another big bat that could help the line-up, he can still play the outfield, over the course of his career he has killed it hitting in the Roger's Centre and he's also hit well in almost every other AL East park! What am I missing here?



2.  Here's something that I'm reading too much into!  The Jays have sent twice the amount of staff to this year's GM meetings.  Last time they did that that they traded for all the overpriced talent in Miami.  #thingsthatmakeyousayummmm



3. Rumors came out last week the the Owner of the Tampa Bay Rays has started talking about the possibility of moving the team to Montreal if they can't get a new stadium deal soon.  To be honest I see this nothing more than a posturing move by the club to put pressure on the city to get something done, but if it's not and they would move to Montreal how great would it be if both the Jays and the new Montreal team would be in the AL East.  Instant Rivals....The Jays haven't had something like that since they were taken out of the same division as the Tigers.  This would be great for Baseball in Canada. Plain and Simple.



4.  I think I may be repeating myself here, but I have no expectation that the Blue Jays are going to sign any of the high end FA that they all seemed to be rumored into being interested in.  Why aren't they?  Because AA is obsessed with Value contracts, and Value & FA contracts are two things that inherently don't go together.  It may happen, but i'm not holding my breath on Panda, VMart or Russell Martin playing SS for the Jays anytime soon.



5. So this week we have the GM meetings, which is just the fluffer for the Winter Meetings that will take in about a month in San Diego.  Don't get me wrong I love all the baseball chatter that we get around the GM Meetings, but i'm the feeling more and more its really just a bunch of Agents talking to reporters trying to use the media to build a market for their player.  It's almost getting too obvious.  That being said I'm already jacked for the Winter Meetings so we can actually see some stuff come together.